Earlier this month, the BOC Elite Miles Card forced its way back into our collective imaginations with an insane promotion for March 2024: an uncapped 7-8 mpd on overseas and online spend, dining, SIA & Scoot tickets, KrisShop and Pelago.
It’s a wide range of categories as is, and given how easy it is to turn offline spend into online transactions with Amaze, basically an uncapped 7 mpd everywhere for a month. Incredible stuff, really, and it brought back memories of the Citi x Apple Pay uncapped 8 mpd offer.
But given BOC’s long history of shenanigans, however, many people were skeptical. And true to form, the bank has sent out an ambiguous SMS that’s causing a whole lot of confusion…
BOC Elite Miles ends bonus miles offer(?)
Yesterday, BOC sent out the following SMS to its cardholders.
Thank you for your participation in the BOC Elite Miles World Mastercard™ – Spend Promotion 2024. The Reward has been fully redeemed as of 15 March 2024. Please stay tuned to BOCSG’s Facebook page for more promotions! For assistance, please call BOC Card Centre hotline.
The ambiguous wording has caused no small amount of alarm, and the way I see it, there’s two possible interpretations:
- That registration for the campaign has closed, but cardholders who have already registered will continue to enjoy their uncapped bonus miles
- That the bonus miles have been fully redeemed, and the promotion is effectively over, regardless of when you registered
A data point in the MileChat suggests that (1) is the correct reading (though a follow up data point suggests the exact opposite), and I certainly hope so for the sake of everyone who’s already registered.
The only thing I’ll say is that if (1) is correct, then it’s a little strange they’d send this message to already-registered cardholders since it’s irrelevant to them, and will only spark confusion. But then again, I doubt the bank has the ability to target their SMS only at unregistered cardholders.
BOC’s official Facebook page isn’t very helpful either. Their post has been updated to say “Fully Redeem” (sic), though it’s unclear what they mean by that.
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⚠️ Story update: BOC has now edited its Facebook post to add the following: “The BOC EM Mastercard Promotion has ended and the Reward has been fully redeemed. Cardmembers who has successfully registered into the Promotion via SMS, all Qualifying Spend made from 01 March to 15 March 2024 (both date inclusive) will be qualified for this Promotion. T&Cs apply.”
This, unfortunately, means that (2) is the correct reading. It’s game over.
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As an aside, here’s where banks should strive for less ambiguity, not more. Seriously, how hard would it be to write something along the lines of “new registrations are now closed, but cardholders who have already registered may continue enjoying the offer until 31 March 2024”? That would help avoid so much confusion and panic- though BOC veterans will say such things are a feature, not a bug.
I don’t have any skin in the game, but for what it’s worth, I do think this is just another example of BOC creating problems for itself with bad English. I personally believe that (1) is probably correct, though if I were a registered cardholder I might try to get some written confirmation from BOC to that effect.
Recap: BOC Elite Miles bonus miles offer
Here’s a recap of how the offer works/worked (delete as applicable).
From 1-31 March 2024, BOC Elite Miles Cardholders will earn an uncapped bonus 6 mpd (in the form of 27 BOC points per S$1 spent) on the following transactions:
| Category | Definition |
| Online Spending | Any retail transaction made via the internet |
| Overseas Spending | Not defined by T&Cs, but based on BOC’s regular definition would be foreign currency transactions with payment gateway outside of Singapore |
| Dining | MCC 5812 Restaurants and MCC 5814 Fast Food |
| Singapore Airlines, Scoot, KrisShop and Pelago |
Any transaction with the following descriptions:
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This bonus is on top of the regular BOC Elite Miles card benefits, so you should be earning:
- 7 mpd if the transaction in in SGD (1 mpd base + 6 mpd bonus)
- 8 mpd if the transaction is in foreign currency (2 mpd base + 6 mpd bonus)
Cardholders will earn the usual 1/2 mpd (in the form of 4.5/9 BOC points) when the transaction posts. These BOC points can be converted into either KrisFlyer or Asia Miles at the following ratios.
| Frequent Flyer Programme | Conversion Ratio (BOC Points: Partner) |
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45,000: 10,000 |
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27,000: 6,000 |
The bonus 6 mpd will be credited within 60 days of the end of the promotion, directly into your KrisFlyer account with no fees.
Conclusion
BOC has updated cardholders that its very generous bonus miles offer is now “fully redeemed”, though there’s some ambiguity as to what exactly that means.
What’s clear is that if you haven’t registered yet, it’s too late to do so now. And if you applied for a BOC Card just for this promotion but it hasn’t arrived yet, chin up- you’ll be ready when the next one comes round!
When the message came out, I was inclined to think it was referring to point number 2: the miles have been fully redeemed. But there is no way to prove certainly otherwise other than blindly spending and hoping that it somehow the bonus will be credited right?
I think it is actually quite clear. It is fully redeemed. That means, registered or not, it is over. No doubt, behind the scenes they had a pool of miles to allocate to this. That pool of miles has been used, so the offer is fully redeemed. Citibank do a very similiar thing for their Agoda promotions. Usually something like 15% or 20% discount for bookings made up to a certain date. But if interest is high, you note that it becomes ‘fully redeemed’ earlier and the discount is no longer shown on the landing page. Not rocket science.
Glad I dun have this card or try applying for it.